Well, the hotels are booked, the bags are sitting by the front door, and the Brit-pop playlist is safely on the iPod (pending arrival of the UK voltage converter with my mother). Looks like I'm ready go to.
See you July 1 (or possibly sooner, if those wacky Brits leave their internet access lying around for anyone to use)!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
For posterity
My first knitting in the round: a test run with Louet fingering-weight merino in Fern Green, knit on US-0 (2 mm) double-pointed needles.
In other words, toothpicks and really soft dental floss.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Mr. Bermuda, I salute you.
Do you know who I'd like to meet? The person that invented the Bermuda short. I'd like to shake that man's hand.
I bought a pair of Bermuda shorts this weekend, my first juniors-department purchase in, what, a decade? There are lots of reasons why I love these shorts, the first and foremost being that I look like I robbed an old man and made off with his golf pants. Wearing old-man pants in public is fun. Also, they are pink and brown and green plaid, which means they go with everything I own, including my favorite "I Heart Jake Ryan" t-shirt. They're long, so I'm not doing the embarrassing two-inch inseam thing, for which I believe I'm officially getting too old, or maybe I'm just not built right for it. They're light and comfortable, and they look nice with flip-flops. They look nice with practically anything, actually. They are wonder shorts.
I also love that somebody decided to make Bermuda shorts trendy. Because, obviously, when girls are wearing the shorts equivalent of the small, small skirt (TM Bend It Like Beckham), the alternative is to convince the youth of America that geriatric shorts are the height of fashion? Is this irony, mainstreamed? Do we think they're getting the joke, or that they'd care? I don't know.
All I know is that I LOVE MY SHORTS.
I bought a pair of Bermuda shorts this weekend, my first juniors-department purchase in, what, a decade? There are lots of reasons why I love these shorts, the first and foremost being that I look like I robbed an old man and made off with his golf pants. Wearing old-man pants in public is fun. Also, they are pink and brown and green plaid, which means they go with everything I own, including my favorite "I Heart Jake Ryan" t-shirt. They're long, so I'm not doing the embarrassing two-inch inseam thing, for which I believe I'm officially getting too old, or maybe I'm just not built right for it. They're light and comfortable, and they look nice with flip-flops. They look nice with practically anything, actually. They are wonder shorts.
I also love that somebody decided to make Bermuda shorts trendy. Because, obviously, when girls are wearing the shorts equivalent of the small, small skirt (TM Bend It Like Beckham), the alternative is to convince the youth of America that geriatric shorts are the height of fashion? Is this irony, mainstreamed? Do we think they're getting the joke, or that they'd care? I don't know.
All I know is that I LOVE MY SHORTS.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
12 of 12: June
Don't you just love random photography projects? Check out Chad Darnell's blog for other people's pictures.
As for me,
7:01 - Gooood MORNING!
7:08 - The food of the gods, you guys. If this were a blog like Mindy Kaling's, I would totally include the Salty Sweet Nutty mix, because it is both a Thing That is Awesome and a Thing I've Bought That I Love.
11:04 - Grabbing a quiet moment on the deck at work. Just me, Thursday Next, and a rice cake with Jif. Oh, and the blindingly bright sun.
Eternity 12:47 - DYING OF BUSY.
5:13 - I went into Bake Sale Betty's looking for an after-work snack and came out with the most amazing piece of apricot pie ever. Ever, ever, EVER. Tangy and sweet, with a sugared crust, slightly chilled (the way pie is supposed to be, in case you were wondering). The corner of 51st and Telegraph is not an idyllic spot, but I sat out in the sun with my pie and it was like...well, it was like a really good piece of pie on a sunny day.
5:25 - Danger, Will Robinson! Sale at the yarn store!
5:31 - I actually went to Article Pract to give back some unused yarn and find something new--they'd recommended way too much Rowan Soft Baby for my shrug, so I returned four skeins and used the store credit to buy sock yarn for my upcoming trip to England. Because there's no way I'm lugging the shrug around with me unless I'm wearing it!
6:27 - Still there. Fonding the goods.
6:42 - A girl and her hammer. It's a fine sight. (Finally assembling an IKEA bookcase I bought a few weeks back.)
7: 57 - Do you know what I don't recommend? Dropping a 200-pound bookcase on your bare foot. (The fact that all 26 bones in my right foot seem to be intact is amazing. I dropped a BOOKSHELF on my FOOT. With no SHOES on. But you can see the nice little blue patch coming up just below the base of the big toe; I took this immediately after I realized nothing was broken and stopped laughing at my own ridiculosity. PSA: Don't construct/move heavy furniture in your bare feet, kids!)
8:26 - Despite my battle wounds, the bookcase is up and functioning, with right angles and everything. Homey knickknacks to be artfully arranged at another time.
8:40 - The cop-out dinner: a veggie burger with nothing but mustard and a sliced peach. I rule!
Next month: July! 12 photos!
As for me,
7:01 - Gooood MORNING!
7:08 - The food of the gods, you guys. If this were a blog like Mindy Kaling's, I would totally include the Salty Sweet Nutty mix, because it is both a Thing That is Awesome and a Thing I've Bought That I Love.
11:04 - Grabbing a quiet moment on the deck at work. Just me, Thursday Next, and a rice cake with Jif. Oh, and the blindingly bright sun.
5:13 - I went into Bake Sale Betty's looking for an after-work snack and came out with the most amazing piece of apricot pie ever. Ever, ever, EVER. Tangy and sweet, with a sugared crust, slightly chilled (the way pie is supposed to be, in case you were wondering). The corner of 51st and Telegraph is not an idyllic spot, but I sat out in the sun with my pie and it was like...well, it was like a really good piece of pie on a sunny day.
5:25 - Danger, Will Robinson! Sale at the yarn store!
5:31 - I actually went to Article Pract to give back some unused yarn and find something new--they'd recommended way too much Rowan Soft Baby for my shrug, so I returned four skeins and used the store credit to buy sock yarn for my upcoming trip to England. Because there's no way I'm lugging the shrug around with me unless I'm wearing it!
6:27 - Still there. Fonding the goods.
6:42 - A girl and her hammer. It's a fine sight. (Finally assembling an IKEA bookcase I bought a few weeks back.)
7: 57 - Do you know what I don't recommend? Dropping a 200-pound bookcase on your bare foot. (The fact that all 26 bones in my right foot seem to be intact is amazing. I dropped a BOOKSHELF on my FOOT. With no SHOES on. But you can see the nice little blue patch coming up just below the base of the big toe; I took this immediately after I realized nothing was broken and stopped laughing at my own ridiculosity. PSA: Don't construct/move heavy furniture in your bare feet, kids!)
8:26 - Despite my battle wounds, the bookcase is up and functioning, with right angles and everything. Homey knickknacks to be artfully arranged at another time.
8:40 - The cop-out dinner: a veggie burger with nothing but mustard and a sliced peach. I rule!
Next month: July! 12 photos!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
I see London
Have you ever said to yourself, "Self, I REALLY want to go on vacation right now"? And have you ever just let yourself be taken in by the power of the internets, and given your bank account a guilty look, and just pressed "Purchase ticket," because you'll never go if you think too hard about it?
Not that I would ever do anything like that. NEVER.
Except that...I'm going to England! I leave in less than three weeks! I'll be gone for eight days! Surprise!
See, it's hard to travel when you have plenty of vacation time but limited funds and tons of friends who don't want to leave their husbands behind. So when a friend--we'll call her Christine, because that's her name--decides to visit London on her way to Berlin, and invites you to share her hotel room, you take her up on the deal. If you're me, you might go home, check the internet until you find a decent ticket price, call your mother for a reality check that's really a pep talk, close your eyes, and click. Then you might spend some time freaking out. But then you calm down and feel pretty good, because you're going to England!
The plan is to meet Christine in London on the 24th, hang out with her there until the 27th, and then take off to parts unknown-to-me--I'm currently thinking the Lake District, or maybe the Peak District? Somewhere wild and moory but accessible by public transit, because cars are expensive and trains are far more romantic, anyway. I'll spend a few days in the country and then cruise back to London for a night and fly home Sunday, July 1.
Mostly, I just can't believe I did it. But I'm getting used to the idea pretty quickly.
Not that I would ever do anything like that. NEVER.
Except that...I'm going to England! I leave in less than three weeks! I'll be gone for eight days! Surprise!
See, it's hard to travel when you have plenty of vacation time but limited funds and tons of friends who don't want to leave their husbands behind. So when a friend--we'll call her Christine, because that's her name--decides to visit London on her way to Berlin, and invites you to share her hotel room, you take her up on the deal. If you're me, you might go home, check the internet until you find a decent ticket price, call your mother for a reality check that's really a pep talk, close your eyes, and click. Then you might spend some time freaking out. But then you calm down and feel pretty good, because you're going to England!
The plan is to meet Christine in London on the 24th, hang out with her there until the 27th, and then take off to parts unknown-to-me--I'm currently thinking the Lake District, or maybe the Peak District? Somewhere wild and moory but accessible by public transit, because cars are expensive and trains are far more romantic, anyway. I'll spend a few days in the country and then cruise back to London for a night and fly home Sunday, July 1.
Mostly, I just can't believe I did it. But I'm getting used to the idea pretty quickly.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Check, check, double-check!
I was a machine this weekend, my friends. No lounging about for me; I Got Things Done, in that gratifying "I am an active and contributing member of society" kind of way. If I'd had a to-do list, I would have crossed a very many things off of it. Very exciting!
What I've been up to:
- Watched the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice and remembered how completely gorgeous it is, despite not being the MOST complete and faithful adaptation and also having a truly appalling "closure" scene tacked on to "satisfy" our 'merican sensibilities.
- Admitted my own lameness and applied nose to grindstone; started writing my spec script. Me: 1; Cold open that has now been moved to after credits: 0. Woot! (Also, dialogue is so much easier than brainstorming. MUCH BETTER.)
- Walked to library, ATM, used bookstore, and farmer's market and came back with a pretty and fairly priced copy of Atonement and a million pounds of peaches, cherries, asparagus, raspberries, and mixed baby organic greens.
- Made raspberry-peach pie from scratch
- Mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors. Since my mother reads this blog, I'd rather not say how long it's been.
- Somehow ended up with some friends cramming into my living room for a Pirates of the Caribbean catch-up party. Have I mentioned lately how much fun those movies are? I'm so pleased with how the trilogy turned out. Anyway, I can't believe they sat through essentially six hours of movie time, but pizza, wine, pie, and pirates makes for a fine gathering, if I may say so. Only just avoided a late-night showing of At World's End to round out the evening. Instead, we made silly videos featuring an origami crane, filmed with a masterful eye on Luke's phone.
- Picked up two new books (The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde, and Take the Cannoli, by Sarah Vowell) to supplement The Complete Stories of Eudora Welty, which I'm reading in dribs and drabs and will probably only finish if I'm buried with it. Three books at once! Oh, the liberation! I am a WILD and UNPREDICTABLE WOMAN.
- Finally accepted the fact that my shower is incredibly lame; bought Water-Pik massaging shower head that promised to fix my water-pressure issues forever, only to install it and make the problem WORSE. Will return Water-Pik if possible and (grudgingly, with much muttering) go back to shivering and shaking my fist at the original, crappy shower head. D'oh.
- Went to IKEA alone in a show of tragic miscalculation; bought shelving unit and then realized I had no way of getting it off of the shelf, onto my cart, into the car, and up the stairs into my apartment. Made use of fine IKEA employees for the first three; called Luke and flattered him into helping me with the fourth. Shelf space! I love shelf space! Now I can arrange my stuff in a casually charming and eye-pleasing manner! Excellent.
- Rearranged bedroom furniture into a configuration that makes far more sense, unless I get a sewing machine for my birthday, in which case I'll have to move it back.
Things I am pondering for the near future:
- What else happens in my spec script? Ack! (Okay, that's an exaggeration. I do know what happens, kind of, but the whole thing feels very slippery right about now. Surprise!)
- Assembling the shelving unit. I may have gotten the wrong color--black-brown may not go with my stuff as well as I thought--but there's no way I'm taking it back down the stairs, into the car, out of the car, and back to the store, so it's mine now. And anyway, far be it from me to decrease the amount of shelf space in my apartment.
This post brought to you by the couch, wireless, and the letters N, R, and M (for Not Ready for Monday!).
What I've been up to:
- Watched the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice and remembered how completely gorgeous it is, despite not being the MOST complete and faithful adaptation and also having a truly appalling "closure" scene tacked on to "satisfy" our 'merican sensibilities.
- Admitted my own lameness and applied nose to grindstone; started writing my spec script. Me: 1; Cold open that has now been moved to after credits: 0. Woot! (Also, dialogue is so much easier than brainstorming. MUCH BETTER.)
- Walked to library, ATM, used bookstore, and farmer's market and came back with a pretty and fairly priced copy of Atonement and a million pounds of peaches, cherries, asparagus, raspberries, and mixed baby organic greens.
- Made raspberry-peach pie from scratch
- Mopped the kitchen and bathroom floors. Since my mother reads this blog, I'd rather not say how long it's been.
- Somehow ended up with some friends cramming into my living room for a Pirates of the Caribbean catch-up party. Have I mentioned lately how much fun those movies are? I'm so pleased with how the trilogy turned out. Anyway, I can't believe they sat through essentially six hours of movie time, but pizza, wine, pie, and pirates makes for a fine gathering, if I may say so. Only just avoided a late-night showing of At World's End to round out the evening. Instead, we made silly videos featuring an origami crane, filmed with a masterful eye on Luke's phone.
- Picked up two new books (The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde, and Take the Cannoli, by Sarah Vowell) to supplement The Complete Stories of Eudora Welty, which I'm reading in dribs and drabs and will probably only finish if I'm buried with it. Three books at once! Oh, the liberation! I am a WILD and UNPREDICTABLE WOMAN.
- Finally accepted the fact that my shower is incredibly lame; bought Water-Pik massaging shower head that promised to fix my water-pressure issues forever, only to install it and make the problem WORSE. Will return Water-Pik if possible and (grudgingly, with much muttering) go back to shivering and shaking my fist at the original, crappy shower head. D'oh.
- Went to IKEA alone in a show of tragic miscalculation; bought shelving unit and then realized I had no way of getting it off of the shelf, onto my cart, into the car, and up the stairs into my apartment. Made use of fine IKEA employees for the first three; called Luke and flattered him into helping me with the fourth. Shelf space! I love shelf space! Now I can arrange my stuff in a casually charming and eye-pleasing manner! Excellent.
- Rearranged bedroom furniture into a configuration that makes far more sense, unless I get a sewing machine for my birthday, in which case I'll have to move it back.
Things I am pondering for the near future:
- What else happens in my spec script? Ack! (Okay, that's an exaggeration. I do know what happens, kind of, but the whole thing feels very slippery right about now. Surprise!)
- Assembling the shelving unit. I may have gotten the wrong color--black-brown may not go with my stuff as well as I thought--but there's no way I'm taking it back down the stairs, into the car, out of the car, and back to the store, so it's mine now. And anyway, far be it from me to decrease the amount of shelf space in my apartment.
This post brought to you by the couch, wireless, and the letters N, R, and M (for Not Ready for Monday!).
Friday, June 01, 2007
PAAAAAAT
Did you know that S.E. Hinton is a woman?
I didn't.
Also, A.A. Milne was a man.
When I am a famous writer, I'm going to USE MY FULL NAME; mark my words.
I didn't.
Also, A.A. Milne was a man.
When I am a famous writer, I'm going to USE MY FULL NAME; mark my words.
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